OK....so currently I have overhead flourescent lighting in my shack and sitting back the other morning I thought...maybe it is a bit too harsh. So, I'm thinking of replacing it with some overhead track lighting to give the shack more of a comfy-cozy feeling. Now, first queston is what is your preference and secondly, what if I were to install track lighting but used the new flourescent flood lights? They come in at least three different temps, natural, soft white and daylight and each gives different color renditions. Although a bit expensive yet, how about the LED lights? I guess I am looking for a little softer lighting but yet enough to be able to still see all te knobs and stuff. I could always add a desk top flourescent light as an add-in for for when I do the QSL chores.

As long as the fluorescent tubes are behind a suitable diffuser panel I don't think their light is "harsh" at all. I wouldn't want them in a living room or bedroom but I like a lot of light in my ham shack.

Hate flourescent lights including the curly q bulbs. The UV bothers my eyes as well as the flicker rates. Not to mention the has mat issue if one breaks. I only use incandecent, halogen, or LED. LED are coming down in price. Full spectrum incadescant are nice but expensive and run hot. I do not know if the LED full spectrum are out yet.

I, too, run all incandescent in my house. I got enough of fluorescents in a cube farm while staring at a CRT monitor. Didn't want to drag that home.

Everybody squawks energy conservation and cost savings. When I drink scotch, I don't pick a cheap swill. I could ride around on a cheap Japanese crotch-rocket, but I opted for a Beemer motorrad. Why would I torture myself with bad lighting? Sometimes the better things in life are worth the money.

The only incandescent bulbs in my house including the garage, barn or outside lighting is in fridges. I have been using the "twist" florescent replacement bulbs since they came out with no complaints or flicker issue. A nice thing about the twists is that light fixtures are wattage rated due to heat dissipation with incandescent bulbs. You can use a brighter twist bulb if need be. I also use Daylight colored ones in some rooms. I use a few LED bulbs too. Also consider during air-conditioning season that a few thousand watts of incandescent lights produce about 6000 BTU's of extra heat to remove. And, the twists make it a lot easier to fully light house on emergency power during outages.

Logged

--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

Yes indeed. With air conditioners consuming 1/3 watt to move 1 watt outside the home, every 100 watt incandescent bulb that is changed to a 25 watt flourescent bulb saves 75 watts power directly and 25 watts of AC power for a savings of 100 watts of electrical energy.

Of course in the winter it works the other way round and the heating system must supply the 75 watts of power (plus an efficiency factor) that the 100 watt bulb is no longer adding to the house. If the house is heated electrically there is no electrical power savings. If powered by another source of energy we have traded electrical energy (and the source of energy that is converted into electricity) for the other source of energy.

We've been replacing all of our Cool White CFL's with Daylight spectrum CFL's as they quit. Makes a heck of a difference for us, as my wife is a graphic artist. We put the high blockage solar screens on all the windows and with the CFL's it has dropped our power bill. In the bathrooms, we were using the frosted globe CFL's beause they took about a minute to come up to full brightness. Worked great for nighttime trips to the room as you didn't get full light level if you were pretty quick. Since then, we have been changing to the LED bulbs in the bath and they do the dame thing, but wtih less time. Not quite as bright when at full power, but by going up one equivalent size, they work fine.

I'd suggest just buying two bulbs of different color temps and try them out before commiting to a complete changeover. You might find that it works better for your shack to add a couple of fixtures and switches to allow independant control rather than go with a central light that is bright enough for most things but may be too bright for other activities.

I agree with K1WJ. You have to be careful about your selection of fluorescent or LED. Many of the LED use small switching suppies that will generate hash on the HF bands. Some of the newer fluorescent fixtures use switching supplies also as they have found using higher frequencies gives better efficiency and longer bulb life. The old ballast transformers are now switching supplies.

I've been using CFLs for about 10 years but am in the process of switching back to incandescents. No matter what brand they are, I rarely have a CFL that lasts anywhere near its advertised life. Apparently this is a common complaint because many vendors offer a refund.

Hopefully LED bulbs are better quality. But after the CFL experiment, it's going to be a while before I'll consider them. On the plus side, I've never had RFI problems with CFLs.

I've been using CFLs for about 10 years but am in the process of switching back to incandescents. No matter what brand they are, I rarely have a CFL that lasts anywhere near its advertised life. Apparently this is a common complaint because many vendors offer a refund.

Like going back to tube radios. Incandescent bulbs will be getting pretty scarce soon too. I never had any bulb life problems here and have a few that are 5+ years old now. I even have some in barn that I installed when they first came out that still work. They are inside inclosed clear glass covers/guards that keep dust out and prevent damage to them. Only problem with them is when it is really cold out they can take a several minutes to reach full brightness but they have worked at 15 below.

Copyright 2000-2018 eHam.net, LLC
eHam.net is a community web site for amateur (ham) radio operators around the world.
Contact the site with comments or questions.
WEBMASTER@EHAM.NETSite Privacy Statement